A Cold Windy Night
by Relm Wanderer
Summary: It's a cold windy night and Lina's window won't close... I didn't classify this as romantic but I suppose it's romantic in a situational kind of way.


**A Cold Windy Night**

By Relm

Lina shivered under her sheets. She had over three layers of sheets and blankets covering her as she tried to sleep. But there was no way she'd fall asleep, she was freezing. The reason why she was so cold was because the window to her room was jammed open. It was impossible to close it. And since the room wasn't well insulated the room was far too cold for Lina's liking.

Now it wasn't the dead of winter (more like the beginning of it) so it wasn't that bad. Someone with three layers of sheets and blankets would be more than warm enough. But given Lina's background she wasn't. Lina was used to much warmer climates. So the constant chill breezing through her room wasn't too pleasant for Lina.

"Gah! I can't stand this anymore! I'm going to sleep in someone else's room!' Lina declared hopping out of her bed. Once out of bed she immediately regretted it. "Cold! Cold! Cold!"

...

Lina inched her way through the halls with one of her blankets wrapped around her and her pillow in hand. The first room she went to was Amelia's who was down the hall from her. Hoping that the young princess was still awake Lina knocked on the door. When she got no answer she started pounding on the door.

Either Amelia was sleeping so deeply that she couldn't hear Lina at the door, or she was ignoring Lina.

Lina refrained from trying to wake Amelia up by yelling. The last time Lina had done that in an inn she was kicked out for making too much noise and had to sleep outside. There was no way she was going to make that mistake again.

Lina tried the door but it was locked.

'Great so I'm left with either Gourry or Zel's rooms. I know Gourry wouldn't care but I doubt he's even awake. And Zel… well I don't know about him.' Lina sighed and headed off for Gourry's room. She didn't even bother trying to knock because she knew it would be futile. So instead she tried the door. But alas it was locked too. Zelgadis was now her only option.

Since the inn had been practically full when the four of them arrived their rooms weren't all on the same floor. Zelgadis' room was on the floor above them.

Once up the stairs Lina started counting the rooms to try and find Zelgadis' room. Luckily not only did she find it, but Zelgadis looked like he was awake. He still had his lamp lit.

Lina walked over to the door and softly knocked.

"Yes?" Lina heard Zelgadis say from inside the room.

"Zel can I come in?" Lina tried not to ask in a whiny tone.

"Lina? What are you still doing up?" Zelgadis asked while opening the door. There was a hint of concern in his eyes, Lina wasn't normally still up at this time of the night.

But Lina wasn't staring into his eyes. Her eyes were focused on his semi-bare torso. A slight blush crept to her cheeks.

Zelgadis was confused for a moment until he realized he wasn't wearing a shirt. He quickly scampered off to grab a shirt while Lina came in still clutching her blanket and pillow.

"So what's wrong Lina?" Zelgadis asked after he regained his composure and had put on a shirt.

"I can't sleep." Now Lina was whining.

"Why?"

"My room is too cold!" Lina cried up in chibi form.

Zelgadis sweatdropped. "Why didn't you just use more blankets?"

"I did! But it was till freezing! The window is jammed open and it won't close!"

"Did you complain to the innkeeper?"

"Yes! But he couldn't fix it and there's no other rooms free!" Lina stomped her foot in frustration to prove her point.

"Well how about I try and help you close the window?" Zelgadis suggested.

Lina just pouted in reply.

...

Once they were on Lina's floor she unlocked the door and led Zelgadis in.

Immediately Zelgadis felt the sudden deathly chill of the room. He uncontrollably shivered while Lina bundled up in her blanket that she still had wrapped around herself.

'The window is only open a crack, shouldn't be a problem to close.' Or so Zelgadis had initially thought. He gave the window a good look over and as far as he could there didn't seem to be any reason why the window wouldn't close. Perhaps it was only because of ice or frost, Zelgadis didn't know.

First he gave it a light push but it wouldn't budge. Then he tried a little harder, but still it refused to move. He tried a little harder but still the same result.

Then Zelgadis pushed with all his might and it closed! "See no problem." Zelgadis grinned in triumphant just as the whole window frame, glass and all, fell outside and to the ground with a loud crash.

With the lack of a window there was nothing to shield icy cold windy air. It gusted into the room with a sudden ferocity chilling both Lina and Zelgadis to the bone. Within seconds they both had retreated into the warmth of the hall.

"No problem he says, yeah right." Lina grumbled.

"Have you asked Amelia if you could sleep in her room?"

"Tried, but she's dead asleep and her door's locked. I even tried Gourry's room, but the doofus locked his door for once." Lina said.

The two of them decided to go back to Zelgadis' room and decide what to do from there. But Lina forgot to lock the door to her room so it remained unlocked and hanging somewhat ajar.

...

"Where are you going to sleep?" Zelgadis wondered out loud as they reached his room. He went and unlocked it and let both him and Lina inside.

"Well I was kinda hoping I could sleep on your floor." Lina asked in a small innocent girl voice as she sat down on the edge of his bed.

"No." Zelgadis responded very quickly.

"No? Why not? I promise I wont make any noise! I just want to sleep, I'm tired!" Lina whined.

"No you can't sleep on my floor. I'll sleep on the floor, you take the bed."

Lina frowned. 'Guys…' "No it's your room, I don't want to deny you your bed. Really I'm fine on the floor. You take the bed." Lina insisted.

"There's no way I'm going to let you sleep on the floor while I sleep on the bed. I'll take the floor."

"I'm not going to sleep in your bed if you're sleeping on the floor, and that's final!" Lina declared stomping over to the floor and situating herself with her pillow and blankets.

"Fine be stubborn!" Zelgadis retorted back.

Lina thought that was the end of it and closed her eyes trying to sleep. When all of sudden she was lifted to the air.

Zelgadis had walked over to her, kneeled down and scoped her up with his arms.

"What are you doing?" Lina squeaked as Zelgadis carried her over to the bed.

"There's no way you're going to sleep on the bed if I'm sleeping on the floor," Zelgadis plopped her on the right side of the bed, "And there's no way I'm going to sleep on the bed with you on the floor," He pulled out the covers and hopped onto the left side of the bed, "So the only way to solve this with us both getting a good night's sleep is for us both to sleep on the bed," Zelgadis turned off the lamp, pulled the covers over both of them, and then turned his back to her.

"Both of us? In one bed?" Lina squealed in shock.

"Well it's not like it's a small bed. It's more than enough for both of us so I can't see any reason why we both can't just use it." Zelgadis said matter-of-factly as it was the most logical and sane thing to do.

"We can't both use it!" Lina protested.

"Why not?"

"Because!"

"That's not a good enough reason. And unless you can think of a better reason then we're both sleeping in this bed, end of story. And don't think that if I wake up and don't find you in this bed that I'm not going to do anything. I'll pick you right back up and put you right back in bed so there's no point trying. So stop complaining and get some sleep." Zelgadis closed his eyes and proceeded to sleep. There was no way he was going to have to suffer through Lina complaining all the next day about her stiff muscles.

Lina just laid there in indecision. She was blushing far too hard to think straight. 'In case like this Gourry would just sleep on the floor with me. But the bed is much nicer then the floor… No! What am I think? I can't share a bed with Zel! It's wrong!' Though this went through her mind she was having a lot of trouble moving.

...

Later on in the night Zelgadis woke up and peered over to the right side of the bed. Lina was nowhere to be seen.

'Well I warned her.' Zelgadis got up and out of bed and once again scoped Lina off the floor. She mumbled pleasantly in her sleep.

Zelgadis placed her back on the bed and got onto his side. This time he faced her to make sure that she wasn't pretending to sleep and was going to sneak off again. Satisfied that Lina was asleep and not going anywhere Zelgadis closed his eyes with the intensions of drifting back off to sleep. Only as soon as he closed his eyes he felt something warm up against him that made his eyes snap wide open. What he saw that Lina in her sleepy state had inched over to his side of the bed and was now snuggling up against him.

At first he had tried to pry her off of him, but the harder he tried the tighter she latched on to him. So instead Zelgadis just gave up and puller her closer to him and wrapped her in his arms in a more comfortable position.

Lina mumbled in content as she snuggled up closer to him in her still sleeping state.

...

In the morning Lina had this nice warm feeling all around her. She felt safe and secure. And even though she was starting to wake up she desperately fought it and tried to continue sleeping. But alas that wasn't going to happen and Lina woke up and found out why she felt so warm. She had her arms snaked around Zelgadis whose arms were wrapped around her. Lina also found what she had been using as a pillow, wasn't a pillow but Zelgadis' chest.

If Lina hadn't been in so much shock she would either immediately screamed or fireballed his ass. She was going to do the later when Zelgadis woke up. He immediately covered her mouth with his hand.

"Before you get angry with me, I'll have you know that this is actually your fault."

"WHAT?" Lina screamed under his hand.

At this moment Amelia, Gourry and Xellos were knocking on Zelgadis' door. Xellos whom hadn't been there with them for almost a week now showed up out of nowhere and had alerted Amelia and Gourry the state of Lina's room.

"Mister Zelgadis are you awake? Something terrible has happened! Someone has kidnapped Miss Lina!" Amelia yelled through the door.

Both Lina and Zelgadis stared wide-eyed at each other. Their current position did look somewhat suggestive. But before Lina and Zelgadis could react Xellos teleported him, Gourry and Amelia into Zelgadis' room.

"My isn't this interesting. I had no idea you two had 'that' sort of relationship." Xellos commented with a sly smile.

Gourry looked on in confusion while Amelia's face was a picture of pure shock.

"This isn't what it looks like!" Both Lina and Zelgadis cried out at the same time.


End file.
